The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a Fibre Channel over Ethernet switch system for information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs transmit data using Fibre Channel (FC) communications over non-FC technologies or systems. For example, the Fibre Channel Backbone-5 (FC-BB-5) standard, published by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards, defines the functions and mappings for transporting FC over different (i.e., non-FC) network technologies such as, for example, FC over Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), FC over Transparent Generic Framing Procedure (GFPT), FC over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and FC over Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). The FC-BB-5 standard introduces inefficiencies during normal operation in some scenarios.
For example, during normal FCoE operations according to the FC-BB-5 standard, FCoE data traffic is forwarded/routed through an Fiber Channel Forwarder (FCF) on a converged switch IHS even if the source and destination IHSs are directly reachable across a local layer-2 (L2) Ethernet network (e.g., via a virtual local area network (VLAN) or L2 domain). In order to achieve the FCoE encapsulation of the FC frame sent by a source IHS to a destination IHS, the media access control (MAC) address of the FCF with which the source IHS completed its fabric login (i.e., the FCF-MAC address) is used as the destination MAC (DMAC) address of the FCoE frame. The Fabric-Provided MAC address (FPMA) of the virtual N_Port (VN_Port) within the source IHS is used as the source MAC (SMAC) address of the FCoE frame. Upon receiving the FCoE frame from the source IHS, the FCF performs a forward lookup using the destination identifier (D_ID) in the FCoE frame, replaces the DMAC address in the FCoE frame (i.e., the FCF-MAC address) with the MAC address of the VN_Port within the destination IHS, and replaces the SMAC address in the FCoE frame with its own FCF-MAC address. These actions result from the requirement in the FC-BB-5 standard that IHSs connecting to the FCF across the L2 network use a virtual wire model so that the VN_Port looks like it is directly attached at the FC layer to the FCF's FC switching function. However, when the source IHS and destination IHS are directly reachable across a local L2 Ethernet network, this FCF forwarding requirement has the consequence of adding one or more L2 Ethernet hops, as well as an FCF FC_ID lookup hop, to the data transmission path.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved FCoE switch system.